Have you ever remodeled, repaired and re-carpeted the living room of your life only to watch the whole house sink into the mud of frustration, disappointment and boredom? Learning where happiness resides is often the first step to developing more of it in your life. A house is a handy metaphor to help us understand just how to build an amazing mansion of happiness in your own life.

A blow-up with my son led to some valuable life lessons about anger.

Have you ever wondered who you were, deep inside, in your heart and soul and the marrow of your bones? Do you ache to know? To get a glimpse into the mystery of your own worth and value? If so, you’re not alone. Every month, about 101 million searches (or over a billion annually) ask Google for insight into the perennial question: “Who am I?”

Are your goals in harmony with your faith, beliefs and values? If not, you may find yourself fighting an internal battle that can’t be won, a bit like arm wrestling yourself. No matter who wins, you lose. Learn to set sticky goals instead, that become reflections of the deepest part of you, making them near inevitabilities.

What separates you from the realization of your goals is nothing more than a series of decisions made consistently over time. 92% of those who set goals fail to achieve them. Become the 8% by doing what the 8% do!

We are what we think about over time. We are the accumulation of all our attitudes, beliefs, fears, hopes and dreams, all the thoughts that fill our minds on a regular basis. We are our own self-fulfilling prophesy. Our thoughts are the prisons we condemn ourselves to or they are the keys we use to unlock possibility and potential. There are ways to unleash that potential and live a life of deeply rewarding happiness.

Have you ever gotten just plain sick and tired of those repeating, annoying parts of yourself you wish would just pack up and leave town? It just may set the ball rolling in the right direction if you start with a break-up letter. To yourself. Read a sample break-up letter here.

Are you bored? Has life lost some of its excitement and interest? Boredom is a pernicious thief of happiness, stealing joy from the moments a life is made of. It is a symptom of something misaligned in our lives. Learn how to end boredom forever with just a few simple changes and begin to enjoy a happier, more rewarding life.

Boredom doesn’t “set in.” It doesn’t settle on us like dust in the attic or strike us like lightening or wash over us like so much rain in a thunder storm, soaking us in waves of ennui. Boredom is the natural state of the passively uncurious, the unadventurous and indecisive.

I was recently sitting in the dentist’s chair thinking about my mouth. I don’t usually spend much time doing that, but that day, I was. And it dawned on me that personal development is really a lot like going to the dentist. Sounds strange, but not so much as you might think.

Guest post by Vlad Dolezal: Lately, I’ve seen an unusually high amount of posts in the blogosphere extolling “being happy with what you have”. They’ve been springing up like mushrooms after a mushroom soup factory explosion. Unfortunately, most authors leave out crucial details. Like the fact that being fully content with your current situation for an extended period of time is utterly nonsense.

Stop living life in neutral and start living with your foot on the gas pedal. It doesn’t have to be pushed to the floor, just enough to move you forward and get the adrenaline of passion flowing a little bit. Light the flame of purposeful living. Don’t wait. Get to filling life with the meaning and passion it lacks. Every day you don’t, you delay doing what you were created to do.